The Six Aeroplanes: Prefect,Pegasus,Perseus,Centaurus,Falcon And Furious

 

 

Picture: Paul Crouch,Crown Copyright

 

Further to an earlier piece on rationalising the United Kingdom's naval and military helicopter fleet and another on Hector,Hercules and Hermes,herein we shall list the only aeroplane types which the United Kingdom's armed forces actually need (rather than have or want).

 

 

Picture: L. (Phot.) Sam Seeley,Crown Copyright

 

The Prefect is an aeroplane of approximately one and a half long tons maximum take off weight used for both naval and military initial aeroplane pilot training.

 

 

Picture: L. (Phot.) Sam Seeley,Crown Copyright

 

The Prefect shall eventually be replaced by an aircraft designed and built in the United Kingdom to stimulate the United Kingdom's economy and secure the future of the United Kingdom's aeroplane industry.

 

 

Picture: Grand Logistics

 

The Pegasus shall be an aeroplane of approximately ten long tons maximum take off weight used for both naval and military multi engine aeroplane pilot training,low intensity combat operations and for other,noncombat,tasks for which a larger aeroplane is unneccessary or impractical such as the Waterguard Service (surveillance and search and rescue) and Scottish Ambulance Service (air ambulance) charters.

 

Picture: Unknown Royal Air Force official photographer,© IWM CH 2364

 

The Pegasus shall be an all new aircraft designed and built in the United Kingdom to stimulate the United Kingdom's economy and secure the future of the United Kingdom's aeroplane industry.

 

 

Picture: Grand Logistics

 

The Perseus shall be an aeroplane of approximately fifty long tons maximum take off weight used for both naval and military multi engine aeroplane pilot training,combat patrol and for other,noncombat,tasks such as Foreign Office (secure transport) charter.

 

 

Picture: Unknown photographer,SAAB photograph

 

The Perseus shall be an all new aircraft designed and built in the United Kingdom to stimulate the United Kingdom's economy and secure the future of the United Kingdom's aeroplane industry.

 

 

Picture: Corporal Andy Reddy R.L.C.,Crown Copyright

 

The Centaurus shall be an aeroplane of approximately three hundred long tons maximum take off weight used for military four engine aeroplane pilot training,strategic transport,tactical transport,naval mine laying,aerial refuelling and for other noncombat tasks for which a large aeroplane is necessary such as the Foreign Office (foreign aid) charter.

 

 

Picture: Corporal Daniel Wiepen,Crown Copyright

 

The Centaurus shall be an all new aircraft designed and built in the United Kingdom to stimulate the United Kingdom's economy and secure the future of the United Kingdom's aeroplane industry.

 

 

Picture: Corporal Paul Oldfield,Royal Air Force,Crown Copyright

 

The Falcon shall be an aeroplane of approximately ten long tons maximum take off weight used for both naval and military combat aeroplane pilot training,and for other noncombat tasks such as weapons trials and the Aviation Medicine Flight.

 

 

 Picture: Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Nathan Parde,United States' Navy photograph 

 

The Falcon shall be an all new aircraft designed and built in the United Kingdom to stimulate the United Kingdom's economy and secure the future of the United Kingdom's aeroplane industry.

 

 

Picture: Alert5

 

The Furious shall be an aeroplane of approximately fifty long tons maximum take off weight used for both naval and military combat aeroplane pilot training,air defence,air attack and aerial reconnaissance.

 

 

Picture: David Chao

 

The Furious shall be an all new aircraft designed and built in the United Kingdom to stimulate the United Kingdom's economy and secure the future of the United Kingdom's aeroplane industry.

 

Where Fuel Comes From

It is not difficult to get the impression that some people think that aircraft fuel appears at an air base with the wave of a magic wand.

In most parts of the World the reality is that air bases,in one way or another,rely on ships to deliver fuel.

If the navy can't protect those ships,the air force can't fly it's planes.

Without aircraft carriers,the navy can't protect those ships.

The difficulty of keeping air bases supplied with fuel was emphasised by tanker Ohio breaking through the siege of Malta at the end of Operation Pedestal.

The importance of sea based logistics to air power is also emphasised in lots of very long and dull documents.

However,someone has summed it up in a far more succinct manner with these comments on aerial refuelling.

The Author,Mark Hasara,introduced himself with the following line:

"Folks,

As the Chief of the Air Refueling Control Team for both air campaigns in Afghanistan (2002) and Iraq (2002-2003)"

Lieutenant Colonel Mark Hasara is obviously a man who knows a great deal about putting fuel in to aircraft.

This is a short extract from what he had to say about the logistics of operations in Iraq in 2003:

"Fuel resupply and storage has not been talked about much.

Every one talks about how big an airframe is and so forth.

It is important but if I cannot get gas into the base then it cannot support long endurance tanker ops tempos.

WE RAN A MIDDLE EAST COUNTRY OUT OF GAS!

We had a 4 kilometer long line of 8500 gallon fuel trucks waiting to get on one base to fill one tank farm at one base back up.

We used it all in 3 days and had to do it again.

We had Super Tankers (ST’s) in the Persian Gulf to keep one place full and they pumped it straight from the ST's to the base.

20 KC-10s were flying 38 sorties with 320,000 pound fuel loads.

That is 1.87 million gallons just to fly the KC-10 lines of an ATO at one base."

Some sources say there may have been as many as 14 tanker bases used during that operation.

The immense scale of logistical support can be imagined.


We briefly discussed the costs of convoys of fuel trucks in another post.


The cost of air based logistics was also covered in an earlier post.


Even when aircraft are flying from bases on top of the World's largest oil fields,they still depend on ships to bring them fuel.


It doesn't matter how quickly an aircraft can deploy,without fuel it can't do anything useful when it gets there.

To deliver the fuel will probably require tanker ships.


Those ships will need a navy to protect them.